Sony to recall 1.6 million Bravia HDTVs due to possibility of fire

Sony is poised to announce a recall of its popular Bravia line of HDTVs in …

Is your Sony Bravia flat-panel HDTV in danger of spontaneously combusting? Maybe. Sony has begun recalling 1.6 million Bravias due to a faulty component in the backlight systems. Sony spokesperson Yuki Shima told Bloomberg that the recall was occasioned by 11 incidents of smoking or burning TVs in Japan since 2008, the most recent of which was reported last month.

Although the overheating TVs appear to be confined to Japan so far, the electronics giant plans to broaden the recall to include Europe and the US. After contacting Sony, owners of the affected Bravia models will be visited by repair technicians. If the TV has the faulty transformer identified as the cause of the issue, it will be repaired. Shima said that the company "may offer a rental TV" if the customer is going to be without his or her set as a result of the recall. There will be no replacements or refunds, however.

According to the Daily Mail, the models affected are 40" HDTVs manufactured in 2007 and 2008. Model numbers covered by the recall include KDL-40D3400, KDL-40D3500, KDL-40D3550, KDL-40D3660, KDL-40V3000, KDL-40W3000, KDL-40X3000, and KDL-40Z3000.

The news of the recall comes hot on the heels of a Sony's revealing that its PlayStation Network came under attack by hackers once again, with 93,000 accounts compromised via a third-party. Sony is also having to replace batteries in up to 2 million mobile phones in Japan due to the possibility of their overheating and melting.

36 Reader Comments

Wow, not a good time at Sony. Their security for is for crap as their PSN just got attacked again and now this with their TV's. Plus I'm hearing of bad overheating issues of their NEX-5n camera's and an audible "clicking" on it for some users. They say they can repair for the clicking, but it still will shut-down due to overheating...again, for some users.

They seriously have a QC problem. They're probably so big of a company it's like a hydra to where there's almost no way to get it under control.

Wow, a bad time for Sony indeed. They just getting pooped on left and right. You would think they would be extra careful to not get put under the spotlight again, especially since the last round of bad press. I guess when it rains, it pours.

They seriously have a QC problem. They're probably so big of a company it's like a hydra to where there's almost no way to get it under control.

Thorough lack of focus. Just witness the incompatibility of their own product line with the hundred-thousand wall chargers they have released and now have to inventory. Sony falls under the category of "We never saw a product matrix that couldn't be needlessly expanded to 37 entries."

How can any Sony products be great anymore when they're all vying for the same limited (and in some cases, incompetent) support resources?

The fire only occurs if you attempt to circumvent HDCP using a Sony Blueray player.

I lol'd real hard at that one! Nice!

But seriously, this even more-so reinforces my stance of NEVER buying a Sony product. I mean seriously, what the hell is wrong with this company? They really need to get their shit together. This has got to be incredibly embarassing.

To be fair, we don't know that those 93,000 Sony accounts were compromised. There is a real possibility that someone was using all the old usernames and passwords from the initial hack earlier this year. In fact, the point of the matter is that the reported "attack" was squashed pretty quickly, and nothing really happened as a result of it.

Nice way to fit in that extra browbeat at the end of the article, though...

I've had a 40" Bravia for about three years. They really are great televisions. Of course, mine is not one of the listed units and has not caught fire. If this had happened a few years earlier, I probably would've bought another brand. They really are their own worst enemy.

Can you believe it? I actually just got a recall for my car last week, where apparently a part of my transmission could fail and break the whole thing, and my car isn't even a Sony product!

It's not even like Honda is a brand known for skimping on quality, either. These things happen.

Yeah, but that's not nearly as much fun as more Sony Schadenfreude. I'm sure there's at least a couple hundred people who haven't posted in the Ars news comments in the past few weeks about how they've stopped buying Sony products.

To be fair, we don't know that those 93,000 Sony accounts were compromised. There is a real possibility that someone was using all the old usernames and passwords from the initial hack earlier this year. In fact, the point of the matter is that the reported "attack" was squashed pretty quickly, and nothing really happened as a result of it.

Nice way to fit in that extra browbeat at the end of the article, though...

It's that final paragraph in this article which bothers me. The topic is supposed to be about a Sony TV recall. Why wasn't it limited to that?

One would assume from certain tech journalists over the past two years that only Sony comes under attack by hackers. What are the facts about hacking and sites online? According to a survey by Ponemon Research on behalf of Juniper Networks, 90% of companies who responded said their organizations' computers had been breached at least once by hackers during a 12 month period.

I was thinking of buying one of these TVs, once upon a time... spent a bit of time looking at the 40" KDL V3000 and Z3000. It was around 2007 Christmas when LCD TVs began to really plummet in price and were becoming mainstream.

Surprised that it's taken this long for them to issue a recall though - wouldn't you think a TV that's 3 years old that's a safety risk be recalled sooner?

On the plus side, unlike Vizio the Sony people can repair a backlight. On the minus side they changed internal parts enough that they have to open up the TV to actually find out which inverter they installed on your TV despite it having a unique serial number.

When my PS3 and current Bravia (40", but a V series and unaffected by this recall) reach EOL, that will probably be the end of my ownership of Sony products. The PS3 experience, in particular, has soured me on the company, and there are far too many competitors offering more for less.

When my PS3 and current Bravia (40", but a V series and unaffected by this recall) reach EOL, that will probably be the end of my ownership of Sony products. The PS3 experience, in particular, has soured me on the company, and there are far too many competitors offering more for less.

FAR TOO MANY competitors offering more for less... in the CONSOLE market? I'm sorry, but what are you tripping on?

You've got the Wii, which (even though it has been getting better) tends to have a lot less of the cross-platform games that are on the PC, 360, and PS3. It has a lot of fun games, yes, but in no way do I see it offering "more". Even in consoles, Wii to anything else is apples to oranges.

360, you have pretty much the same cross-platform games, some exclusives on each that are debatable which is better... oh, yeah, and you have to pay a sub to play multiplayer games. That's... not more for less. You have a better selection on the Live Marketplace, but that doesn't overcome the Live sub.

PC is the only really debatable one that offers "more for less", as you say. Most of the games on the PS3 have come out on the PC as well, albeit usually a few months later. I'm a big PC gamer myself, but I'm in no way jaded to the fact that the PC does not hands-down beat the PS3.

The best you're going to get is a no-sum game. There are alternatives to the PS3, yes, but there isn't a single one that I would hands-down say does more for less... much less "far too many" of them. To be fair, I wouldn't say any of them hands-down do less for more, either. I just think you're being a little overzealous in general.

When my PS3 and current Bravia (40", but a V series and unaffected by this recall) reach EOL, that will probably be the end of my ownership of Sony products. The PS3 experience, in particular, has soured me on the company, and there are far too many competitors offering more for less.

FAR TOO MANY competitors offering more for less... in the CONSOLE market? I'm sorry, but what are you tripping on?

You've got the Wii, which (even though it has been getting better) tends to have a lot less of the cross-platform games that are on the PC, 360, and PS3. It has a lot of fun games, yes, but in no way do I see it offering "more". Even in consoles, Wii to anything else is apples to oranges.

360, you have pretty much the same cross-platform games, some exclusives on each that are debatable which is better... oh, yeah, and you have to pay a sub to play multiplayer games. That's... not more for less. You have a better selection on the Live Marketplace, but that doesn't overcome the Live sub.

PC is the only really debatable one that offers "more for less", as you say. Most of the games on the PS3 have come out on the PC as well, albeit usually a few months later. I'm a big PC gamer myself, but I'm in no way jaded to the fact that the PC does not hands-down beat the PS3.

The best you're going to get is a no-sum game. There are alternatives to the PS3, yes, but there isn't a single one that I would hands-down say does more for less... much less "far too many" of them. To be fair, I wouldn't say any of them hands-down do less for more, either. I just think you're being a little overzealous in general.

While one can quibble about the actual phrasing, it's hard to argue with the fact that, so far, the 360 usage environment (along with the XBL gold sub) is a much more pleasant (and consistent, and, apparently, secure) user experience than that which Sony provides with the PS3 environment.

While one can quibble about the actual phrasing, it's hard to argue with the fact that, so far, the 360 usage environment (along with the XBL gold sub) is a much more pleasant (and consistent, and, apparently, secure) user experience than that which Sony provides with the PS3 environment.

I'm not going to argue about which console is the most pleasant gaming experience since there are many arguments one way or the other.

But I will say in using the PS3 that it is a very versatile device. It has a web browser for instance (not a great one but functional). And because it's convenient, I use it quite often for streaming video on my 50 inch plasma TV.

While one can quibble about the actual phrasing, it's hard to argue with the fact that, so far, the 360 usage environment (along with the XBL gold sub) is a much more pleasant (and consistent, and, apparently, secure) user experience than that which Sony provides with the PS3 environment.

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I can't believe I'm reading praises of the 360 on a comment to a HARDWARE RECALL story. It's hard to argue with the fact that, so far, the RRoD debacle trumps anything that has afflicted the PS3, hardware-wise.

I was going to say that if Sony didn't have bad luck they'd have no luck...... its not really luck though is it? Seems like they need some serious restructuring, perhaps less attention to their peripheral products and more focus on what they do/did best. Samsung really caught them napping.

I have one of the affected TVs. It's been excellent. Although I shall phone Sony to get the inspection, I doubt very much that the component will need replacing. Sony's QC is generally very high. I suspect this is a supplier issue.

I have a KDL-40V3000. I've been happy with the purchase. When I bought it, in February 2008 for $1400, I chose it for its ability to display a 1920x1080 computer screen without blurring adjacent pixels, an uncommon feature at the time, among 1080p LCD TV sets.

The incidence of the recall issue is so tiny, I doubt if I'll bother with participating in the recall and scheduling a service visit. I wonder if the house-calling technicians can identify whether your set has the affected part through the service port.